I set out onion plants on March 21...and also a row of gladious corms...and a patch of anti-fungal mustard seed ahead of late watermelons. I had a sneaky thought of planting sweet corn the other day but did not.

I have gotten rain lately and hope it stays away for a little while.

Picked a ton of Spinach today and planted the late Lettuces. The tiny Pears are shaping up nicely and will need major thinning later on, looks like nearly 100% pollination. The Blueberry bushes are in full bloom andf the bumblely type bees are having a field day on them, should be a good harvest later on. Peas are about 6" high now and are sending out tendrels. The Broccoli and Cabbage transplants are also looking good, hope to post some pics soon.

Asst. Lettuces...

Peas........still don't trust the rabbits.

Blooming Blueberries....

Pears shaping up.............

...and lastly my 2 cheatin' Tomato plants, of which I'll be keeping warm with my light bulb in a box trick. Temps will dip down to 33F tonite and 35F tomorrow night.

The next 10 days will be dry and warmer so had to heavily water everything today.

I might have jumped the gun today but I planted the bush beans, tomorrow the cuke and squash seeds go in the ground. Normally I'd wait another 2 weeks but the long range looks almost hot for the next 2 weeks and not even 40's are expected. The corn I took a chance on last week is now popping up but I did cover the row with an old blanket these last 2 nights in the low 30's. The tomato plants are doing ok, esp the 2 in the heated boxes, but even 3 more which were not protected came thru ok, no freeze damage was noticed today and all 5 are in bloom. Just need a good rain now, but none is in sight.

You'd be stunned if you had to garden here. It's getting close, though.

I can plant peas now, and will this weekend. I'm just now planting annuals under light in the house. I might plant some lettuce in my cold frame. My begonias have sptouted under lights. I'm taking cuttings from the alternanthera and euphorbia I overwintered. It's time to wake up my dahlias that I acquired 15 years ago at the compost dump. I also found some of the begonias there, dumped out of their pots.

(See Klem? You, yourself, could score some free dahlias and begonias, but nooo, you can't; you'd have to get out of your lounge chair first! I wish you could try to be more like me, Klem, for your own sake.)

Finally!!

Some of this leaf mould is still frozen in huge chunks.

Ready or not. The onions (and, eventually, the cukes) are going to get this year's leaf mould harvest. I'm always stunned that these sad little, floppy onion seedlings amount to anything.

Put in runner bean plants today. Probably a bit early but the forecast looks reasonable and frost is unlikely. Also put in lettuce and kale. Peas are two inches high. Asparagus starting. Fighting off the snails and pigeons.

Our Spring heat wave is coming to an end now with a low of 35F predicted for Tues, a warm up after that so need to get the tender crops thru a possible frost. Got little green tomatoes out there on 5 extra early plants and the bush beans & cukes are popping up along with the corn now at 6 inches.

The recent heat wave cut short the Spinach season, it's about 90% bolted now. The cabbages, broccoli, carrots, peas, lettuces, and beets will like the return of normal cooler temps, at least for a few days. Peas should start blooming in about a week. I did plant 2 banana pepper plants but glad I haven't planted the watermelons and cantloupes yet.

Fighting Fire Blight daily too, looks bad this season on the pear trees but I think I caught it early with a lot of snipping before it spreads. Got 1/8" of rain this morning, need another inch to tap down the tree pollen and end the dry spell.

I had 30° last night...had a clear visqueen tent over the sweet corn and double frost cloth on much of the bloomig strawberries

Hope your corn survived ok Wayne, I'll be covering up mine after dinner tonite. Also covering the young bush beans, squash, cukes, and my 2 favorite tomato plants. All the cole crops can handle it ok but things looked rather frazzled this morning and the temp tonite will be 3-4 degrees colder. Keeping fingers crossed,, will see in the morning the results. btw, the squash & cukes are just 1" high so a light sheet covering may do it? have back-ups inside if not. The more mature corn and snaps will have a hoop with heavy blankets. The 2 tomato plants will be inside a blanket teepee (they're too big now for the box and light bulb trick.......untill tomorrow, good luck out there folks!

Corn is fine...done this before.

Glad all is well Wayne, same here, the temp was 31.5F this morning but it looks like everything I covered up came thru it ok, some pics below....

Here's a long shot of what I covered up....as you can see the spinach has bolted...

Here's my covered row of corn with lettuces behind....

With cover removed the Ambrosia corn looks ok. My covers were a layer of an old plastic shower curtain with an added old blanket on top...

Same with the bush beans (Strike)......before....

...and after,,,,

more in next post....

Here's the Tomato tee-pee....

...and uncovered....

A close up of the baby maters.....Cherokee Purple...

The emerging Squash seeds below, were covered with a light bed sheet,

the Cukes also survived ok...

...and lastly....the Peas, no cover required....

...tossing in a pic of the Fireblight, one pear stem trimmed off....

...and below, this was the start of a hornet's nest in that same pear tree. I was going to let it delvelope for a short while so the hornets could do their job of hunting down loopers to feed their young. But something came along and destoyed the nest before it got going...a bird maybe?

Hopefully that was the last freeze of the season, for all of us !!!!

The start of the gardening season at my community plot was supposed to be April 18, but got pushed back a week due to at least 3" of rain early last week, meaning the park district would not go in to till. Then we got several days with overnight lows in the 30s. :(

I'm just starting to get ready to plant anything. Got the water set up yesterday and the ground tilled a week earlier. One garden area is 200 feet from the house so I need a 1/2 hp booster pump 130 feet from the water source otherwise I just get a trickle,

The other area is 250 feet away and runs 135 feet long, so the end is 335' away from the water source. I need a 1 hp booster pump to get any kind of volume back that far but haven't set it up because I'm not sure if I'll plant anything in back.

Kevin9408, my plot is 20'x30', and I have the best location: right by a water hydrant, the composted manure pile, the mulch pile and the compost pile. Of course, we cannot run a hose to the hydrant, but I can live with that.

vgkg, I'm glad your plants were well protected. Last year we had a frost on June 1 and our last frost date here is supposedly May 20. Mother Nature does what she does, though, in spite of frost dates and weather projections.

My garlic is growing happily and I wandered through the asparagus patch today but nothing yet. Plants are growing under lights and waiting for it to be time to go outside to harden off. The peas are just up and seem to be happy enough and I have lettuce, spinach, green onions, carrots, beets, mizuna, napa and kohlrabi in the unheated greenhouse in raised beds and so far so good.

Annie

Wow Kevin that is pricey with 4 packs @ 5$. Here our local nursery has a huge variety of tomatoes and everything - all 4-packs for $2 each no matter veggies or flowers. Back in late March I went there and my choice was either a 4-pack of Cherokee Purples for $2 or 1 CP plant a bit more mature at $5/each. I bought the 4-pack, repotted them and within a week they were just as mature as the $5 plant.

A footnote on insects this year...

Thankfully the cabbage loopers have been very sparse, and no sign of any cucumber beetles either, by now the cuke beetles are swarming all over the spinach pollen stalks as they bolt. Not a single one so far. I was a bit worried not seeing any Honey bees but today I spotted a few on the clover in my "lawn". I'm hoping that this year's brutal winter and lower than normal temps have reduced the bad pests numbers. It would be nice to have a growing season with less insect pests, we'll see how it goes from here.

Right now we have yet another "frost advisory". I know that's not unusual for Northern Michigan and it's better than the Upper Peninsula, they stilll have a couple of feet of snow up by Lake Superior. A group of guys from my family are up there smelt "dipping" which is basically standing in the river with a net and dipping smelt out of the water. The river water temps are in the 30s and my cousin said that floating chunks of ice just sail past them. Of course, dipping is done after dark so even colder, LOL. I like smelt OK, but not that much, I just stay here and talk to my plants and wait for it to be nice enough to put them outside, LOL.

I did share some flower seeds with a neighbor's 17 year old daughter. She just wants to grow flowers so she can pick bouquets and give them to people to make them happy. I am happy to assist in that endeavor, so my husband took the DR tiller and tilled her up a spot, a little easier than trying to dig it up by hand. I gave her a bunch of "spare" seeds that I haven't planted anywhere and told her to use what she wanted and then just send the others back to me. If there is anything she particularly likes, I will show her how to save the seeds and hopefully I'll be able to turn her into a gardener!

Annie